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Archive for October 7th, 2010
Apple patents ambidextrous mouse
New Apple’s patent tells us about an ambidextrous mouse capable recognizing whether you are holding the thing with your right or your left hand.
Leave a commentMacBook Air Supplies Dwindle, Refresh Coming Soon?
MacBook Air availability from third-party resellers is showing signs of dwindling supplies, suggesting that a refresh may be approaching in the relatively near future, perhaps as early as next week. Nearly every retailer has run out of stock of the low-end MacBook Air model, while several vendors are also showing no stock of the high-end model.
Motorola sues Apple. Now every mobile company is suing every other company.
Recently Motorola announced that it has filed suit against Apple over alleged infringement of a number of patents by a range of Apple products, such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and certain Mac computers.
Apple's iPad coming to all U.S. Mercedes-Benz dealers
After a successful iPad pilot program with 40 dealerships this summer, Mercedes-Benz decided to expand its iPad program to all 355 U.S. dealerships this fall. The "overwhelmingly positive" results from the test program were surprising, said vice president of marketing Andreas Hinrichs. "The feedback was so positive." Dealers use the iPad to apply for loans and fill out paperwork keeping customers on the showroom floor. Although the test program did not provide conclusive evidence that buyers are more willing to purchase a vehicle if they stay in the showroom, Mercedes-Benz made its decision.
Apple Preps for NC Data Center Launch, Paid $1.7 Million to Couple for 1-Acre Plot
Apple has to pay a North Carolina couple $1.7 million for their home on one acre of land in a deal to enable the company to build its $1 billion data center. According to tax records, the house and property appear to have been assessed at a value of $181,700. The couple showed no interest in moving out of their home of 34 years in the town of Maiden.
Supplier Denies Shipping iMac Touchscreens to Apple
DigiTimes reports that Sintek Photronics has denied claims from late last week that the company has shipped samples of touchscreen panels to Apple for testing in a touch-capable iMac. Barry Wu, VP and spokesperson of Sintek Photronics has denied reports that the company is sampling projected capacitive touch panels for Apple's iMac. Rumors appeared after new Apple patent application, which suggested that the company is at least toying with the idea of a touch-capable iMac. It has been suggested that the company could instead a fully touch-capable Mac OS X offer iOS as layer on top of Mac OS X, allowing both operating systems to coexist on the same machine.
New Apple TV's Component Cost Pegged at $64
Research firm iSuppli estimated the component costs for the new Apple TV at under $64, representing a 35% margin on the new device before accounting for such expenses as research and development, software, patent royalties, marketing costs. The most expensive components in the new Apple TV are the A4 processor that powers the device ($16.55) and the 8 GB NAND flash memory chip ($14.00). It is worthwhile to say that Intel’s Pentium Chip ($40) plus the chipset ($28) on the previous model alone cost more than the whole new AppleTV today ($99 new vs. $299 old).
Wall Street analysts report Apple develops new iPhones
Shaw Wu, who is an analyst at Kaufman Bros., said yesterday he has information that Apple develops new models of iPhones, which have both smaller and larger touch screens. According to his sources close to Apple's supply chain overseas new products will most probably appear next year and support such carriers as Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
"Our sources believe these likely represent new high-end and low-end iPhone models to complement its current iPhone 4. One possibility we are picking up is a "mini" or "nano" iPhone with a smaller candybar form factor leveraging technology in its new mini touchscreen iPod nano."
iPad's touch screen makers are increasing their revenue
Yesterday Taiwanese news resource DigiTimes reported that TPK Touch Solutions and Wintek, which are Apple's partners that make touch panels for the iPad, will experience revenue growth in the last quarter of year 2010, which is evidentially caused by the strong demand for the tablet device. Nevertheless, some other company’s partners like J Touch and Young Fast Optoelectronics are expecting traditional decline in the end-of-year season.
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